Bargain Basement Satellites

November
19, 2007: Looking for a cheap fare 'round the world?
Your search is over. A NASA team has built a small, low-cost
satellite called FASTSAT, and it's almost ready to fly.

Need
some details before you sign up? Read on.

Why
is it called FASTSAT?

It's
not because it travels fast. It's because it was built in
a hurry. The FASTSAT team built this prototype in a mere 10½
months for the relatively thrifty sum of 4 million dollars.

"That's
unheard of," says Marshall Space Flight Center's Edward
"Sandy" Montgomery, "to build something that
will fly in space in that short time frame and for that amount
of money. But that was part of our experiment – to see if
it could be done." The full name says it all: Fast, Affordable,
Science and Technology SATellite.

Montgomery,
the FASTSAT Project Manager, led a team already experienced
in low-cost, quick turnaround balloon missions. "In the
balloon program, people know how to take risks and do things
more quickly," he says. "Quicker build time means
less labor charges, and that's one of the keys to keeping
costs down."

Balloon
missions taught the team some specific ways to save time and
money. For instance, they used commercial off-the-shelf components,
which are readily available and cheaper than specially ordered
parts.

"We
also did some scrounging and got some items left over from
other programs," says Montgomery. "There's nothing
fancy on this satellite."

They
even built the satellite out of aluminum instead of expensive
titanium. And they used a design so simple "even a cave
man could do it." The design required few cuts in the
metal, so fabrication was fast.

FASTSAT
is safe as well as simple. Magnets provide its attitude control
instead of jets, so there are no propellants onboard to offgas
or explode. The satellite has no moving parts – no blades
or momentum wheels whirring around. All of these factors add
up to subtract cost. "We are kind of like the bargain
basement of satellite building," jokes Montgomery.

Why
did they do it?

A
new class of very low cost launch vehicles (such as SpaceX's
Falcon 1 and Kistler's K-1) has opened doors for inexpensive
satellites and instruments.

"You
wouldn't put an expensive payload on an inexpensive rocket
– it's a risk issue. You'd use an inexpensive bus to fly an
inexpensive instrument on an inexpensive rocket," says
Montgomery.

For
example, FASTSAT could be used for test demonstrations of
new technologies. "It doesn't make sense to spend several
hundred million dollars just to test a technology before a
major mission when a FASTSAT can do it for so much less,"
states Montgomery. "That's the impetus driving this project."

What
does FASTSAT look like?

A
picture is worth a thousand words:

FASTSAT
is 39.5 inches in diameter – not much larger than the dreaded
exercise ball. It is hexagonally shaped and weighs 90 kg without
a payload. A payload up to 50 kg can hitch a ride. These dimensions
place FASTSAT squarely in the microsatellite category.

What
is the significance of FASTSAT?

FASTSAT
is just the right size for earth observing missions, space
science missions, and technology demonstrations. Montgomery
says, "We think we can do whole missions for less than
10 million dollars instead of the traditional 100s of millions,
and that includes the launch vehicle, the satellite, and the
widget you want to test. If
you can do low-cost missions locally, at the center level,
this has the potential to bring how NASA does its work to
a whole new level of manageability. It would give centers
more latitude on how to do things and lower management costs
tremendously. If you don't have to have 100 people in the
chain signing off on a project, you save time and money."

What
is next for FASTSAT?

In
late September, the team rolled out their masterpiece for
an internal review, showing their audience proof-positive
that a satellite can be built quickly and inexpensively. They're
hoping for a little more money in order to test and do final
integration activities once they have a specific payload in
mind. But right now, FASTSAT is a horse without a cart. It
has no payload.

"That's
the next step," says Montgomery. "We've proven we
can design it, and we've got it built. Someone who can afford
the ride and has an instrument they want to fly will come
along and find us."